Kyoko Katayama (left) gets on at the Palou station and likes watching for the time of the next train coming in. San Francisco's new T-Third streetcar line starts weekday service. Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San Francisco/4/10/07
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Kyoko Katayama (left) gets on at the Palou station and likes watching for the time of the next train coming in. San Francisco's new T-Third streetcar line starts weekday service. Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San ... more

George Compton from the Ingleside boards San Francisco's new T-Third streetcar line at Marin St. which starts it's weekday service today. Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San Francisco/4/10/07
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George Compton from the Ingleside boards San Francisco's new T-Third streetcar line at Marin St. which starts it's weekday service today. Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San Francisco/4/10/07
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Photo: Liz Hafalia

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Dan Watts (middle) chose on his home location to use the transportation system. He is getting off San Francisco's new T-Third streetcar line which starts weekday service today. Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San Francisco/4/10/07
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Dan Watts (middle) chose on his home location to use the transportation system. He is getting off San Francisco's new T-Third streetcar line which starts weekday service today. Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San ... more

Fabian Wilkinson, who is using the T-Third streetcar to return from his downtown gym this morning, said it was running very slow during this weekend. San Francisco's new T-Third streetcar line starts weekday service today. Liz Hafalia/The Chronicle/San Francisco/4/10/07
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Fabian Wilkinson, who is using the T-Third streetcar to return from his downtown gym this morning, said it was running very slow during this weekend. San Francisco's new T-Third streetcar line starts weekday ... more

SAN FRANCISCO / Trial by the T-Third / Kinks to be worked out after weekday premiere of new streetcar line

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The start of weekday service Monday for San Francisco's new T-Third streetcar line didn't get off to a particularly auspicious start.

There were longer-than-planned for waits between trains, a brief electrical failure and maddening delays at a key South of Market intersection.

But the city's top transit official said that the problems weren't surprising, or that bad, given the complexity of pressing a new line into service.

"On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd say we're at a 7 or a 7 1/2," San Francisco Municipal Transportation chief Nathaniel Ford said after the morning commute on Monday. "Let's put it this way: I have not seen any insurmountable problems and these are significant changes to the system."

Ford said it may be several weeks before the biggest kinks are worked out. The most pressing challenge at the moment: How to move trains quickly through Fourth and King streets near the Caltrain Station, an area with a lot of pedestrians and where two streetcar lines, the T-Third and J-Church, converge. Delays of 10 minutes or more in the area were not uncommon Monday.

But most T-Third passengers interviewed Monday were in a forgiving mood.

"Since it's the first day, I figured there'd be some problems," said 38-year-old Denise Edwards, as she rode her first T-Third train downtown from her Bayview home. "It seems to be moving pretty well."

George Compton, a 47-year-old trucker heading toward Market Street gave his first ride on the T-Third high marks.

"It's better than riding the bus -- less crowded," he said.

The 5.1-mile line runs from Bayshore Boulevard and Sunnydale Avenue in Visitacion Valley, then down Third Street through Hunters Point, Bayview, Potrero Hill and Mission Bay. It crosses the Fourth Street bridge into the South of Market, runs briefly along the Embarcadero, and then heads into the Market Street subway tunnel. It turns around at the Castro Street station.

The start of T-Third service sent a ripple of changes through the Municipal Railway, the Bay Area's busiest public transit system. The 15-Third line, one of the busiest bus routes in the system, was retired over the weekend. The 9X-San Bruno, the 10-Townsend, the 54-Felton, the J-Church, the N-Judah and the S-Castro Shuttle were adjusted.

The T-Third passengers are promised swifter service between the city's southeastern neighborhoods and downtown. But Dennis MacNeil, a 37-year-old product marketing director, found his commute got longer.

He lives in the Haight and used to take the N-Judah to the Caltrain Station, where he'd catch a train to Redwood City -- a commute that normally would take him one hour each way. But the N-Judah no longer runs to the train depot and he had to take a bus to a T-Third station. There, he waited 25 minutes for the streetcar. It took him two hours to get to work.

"I understand that new transit lines have bugs," he said, "but the management at Muni should have seen this coming. ... If this keeps up, I'll be getting back in my car."

Limited weekend runs of the T-Third began in January, but Monday marked the first weekday service -- putting the new route to its first big public relations test as a workhorse commuter train.

Dan Watts, 36, was delighted. He boarded the train Monday morning on Third Street in Potrero Hill, two blocks from his home. "It's the reason I bought property here. It's nice to be able to jump on the train."

Reliability will be the key factor in determining whether the $648 million T-Third light-rail project will be a success or a failure. The Municipal Railway has an on-time performance rate of 70.4 percent, far short of the 85 percent mandated by city voters 1999.

A T-Third train is supposed to show up every eight minutes during the peak morning and evening commutes, Ford said. On Monday, some showed up two or three minutes apart, others were separated by more than 20 minutes, and still others were spaced perfectly, according to Muni's satellite tracking system that can be monitored on the Internet at www.nextmuni.com.

Monday's T-Third performance during the morning commute did much better than service over the weekend.

"Yesterday, I waited 40 minutes for the train to come," Fabien Wilkinson, a 26-year-old waiter who lives in the Bayview and works downtown, said Monday morning. "I was late to work. I just hope it gets better."

A number of factors contributed to the problems over the Easter holiday weekend, including pressure put on the T-Third by Giants fans attending games at AT&T Park, which is served by the new streetcar line.

Things were better Monday. An electrical problem briefly forced one T-Third streetcar out of service, which caused delays during the early-morning commute. Ford said that despite months of intense planning, perfection shouldn't be expected on Day 1.

"This is the real deal now," he said. "People are still getting used to the changes."